Day 5: St. Moritz

Day 5 · St Moritz

My jetlag seems to have caught up with me, and I decided to take a rest day here in town. I slept in, had slow and late breakfast, then headed out for a walk along the lake.

Elevation is somewhere around 5000ft, so I got winded on the hotel stairs, and then REALLY winded coming back up from the lake. I knew I’d have to come back up once I went down – but I did not account for the altitude. It was about 60º F in town today, but with all my walking and unanticipated pulmonary exertion, I could not tell. Funny to come across folks wearing jackets while I’m dripping sweat in a tank top.

St. Mortiz is very fancy. I believe all the high-dollar designers are represented here. I wandered past the Dulce & Gabbana, Cartier, Rolex, Valentino, TWO Prada outposts, and a furrier that was very tempting. I wanted to go in there and touch all of the coats and hats and etc., but … I was a sweaty mess and it’s a lot less fun to surreptitiously fondle pricey furs when you’re damp. I also walked past a gym and noted that someone drove their supercar there. Probably doing squats to practice getting in and out of the car gracefully.

For lunch I wanted something light, which doesn’t seem to be particularly available as I get closer to Italy where pastas and pizzas start to take over the menus (though – one place was advertising poke bowls along with the pizza and pasta). I decided to grab a salad and a kombucha from the Coop and head back to my room for lunch and some quality time with my book, and to futz with the Garmin. I think I figured out the issue, but it’ll be a few days (at least) before I’m back near a highway to test out my theory.

I also took the opportunity today to do a little sink-laundry and dry my socks and shorts in the open window. I’m doing my best to not get irredeemably stinky – but I fully christened my new-to-me gear yesterday in all that heat so it might be a lost cause.

After I finished my book and felt rested, I headed back out for another evening walk and dinner. I ended up at a restaurant a block or so from the hotel, and got the wild boar ragu over spätzle, and a date cake with ice cream on top. I look forward to regretting the ice cream in the morning.

I’ll be ready to hit the road in the morning. St. Moritz is beautiful, but the luxury experience isn’t really what I’m after on this trip. It’s fun to look in the windows for an afternoon though.

I was also still struggling a lot with missing Jordan today, which I did anticipate coming up. Traveling by yourself can offer a lot of freedom – like deciding last minute to splurge on a train ticket or take a rest day – but it’s also lonely and EVERY decision is yours to make. Sometimes I don’t care what I eat, I just need calories and I don’t want to look at 10 menus online. And most dinner menus are designed for couples – I don’t always want to eat the whole appetizer and desert by myself (though, I can, apparently). Food was so central to traveling with Jordan – it was all he thought about and his highest priority everywhere we went. And now here I am finding myself staring at dinner menus wondering which one will be a tolerable balance between anguish and an enjoyable meal, and where the servers are least likely to mention the crying.

Anyway. Off to the mountains of Livigno tomorrow, and a border crossing into Italy! Should be a shorter ride and a smaller town near enough to ride the infamous Stelvio Pass both directions on Monday.